Ember Tolliver's Arc

Chapter 2 of 4

Ember walked back to the tavern with the woman's words still ringing in their head. The candles were gone. The circle was dark. But the vision hadn't stopped, and that meant something. They pushed open the door and stood in the doorway, letting the noise wash over them. Three strangers sat at a corner table, arguing in low voices. Ember recognized the way they leaned forward, urgent and certain. One man gestured sharply as he spoke. "The festival happens at dawn. The visions showed me sunlight through colored glass, secrets spoken as the world wakes up." A woman shook her head. "No. Midnight. I saw stars and smoke, people whispering in total darkness. That's when truth comes out." The third stranger, younger than the others, stared at them both. "You're both wrong. It's dusk. The vision showed me the moment between day and night, when nothing's decided yet." Ember's chest tightened. They all sounded like Ember had sounded yesterday, absolutely sure. The strangers noticed Ember watching and fell silent. "You're the one who set up the candles," the woman said. "Tell them I'm right." Ember looked at their three faces and felt the weight of what they were asking. They wanted Ember to choose a version, to make one vision real and the others false. But Ember didn't know which one was true anymore, or if any of them were. "I don't know," Ember said, and the words felt like falling. The strangers looked at each other, confused, then stood and walked toward the door. "There's a bell tower past the square," the young one said. "We'll figure it out there." They left without asking Ember to come. Ember followed them through the square to the old bell tower. Inside, the three strangers had spread their evidence across the dusty floor. The man had sketches of candles arranged in a sunrise pattern. The woman had written down every word from her midnight vision. The young one held out a small obsidian stone with purple light glowing through its cracks. A flame was etched into its surface. "I found this the morning after my first vision," they said. "It proves the festival happens at dusk, when fire and shadow meet." The other two shook their heads, insisting their proof was stronger. Ember knelt and looked at all three pieces. The stone. The sketches. The written words. Each one felt true in a way that made the others seem wrong. "We can't all be right," the man said, his voice hard. "One of us has to be seeing it clearly." But Ember thought about the woman with the black flame lantern, how her vision had been completely different from Ember's and still somehow real. "What if none of us are wrong?" Ember said. "What if we're all seeing pieces?" The strangers went quiet. Then the young one with the stone set it down in the center of the floor. The woman placed her writings beside it. The man added his sketches last, reluctant but willing. Ember watched the three objects sitting together and felt something shift. The festival didn't need one version. It needed all of them, held at the same time without forcing them to match. "I'm building a bonfire tomorrow," Ember said. "Bring wood that means something to your vision. We'll let the fire hold all of it." The strangers looked at each other, uncertain but curious. They didn't agree on what the festival was, but they agreed to show up. Ember left the bell tower and walked back through the square. The visions were real. They were just bigger than Ember had thought, big enough to show different people different truths. The festival would begin, and Ember wouldn't have to understand it all before lighting the first flame.